ialottery blog

Iowa-Specific Drawings Are Returning In Pick 3 & Pick 4

There’s a procedural update coming in the drawings for our Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, and from a player perspective, it should be pretty seamless.

Iowa-specific drawings in Pick 3 and Pick 4 will begin tomorrow. That means the winning numbers selected in the games will be unique to Iowa.

Pick 3 was introduced in Iowa in 1998 while Pick 4 debuted here in 2003. Through the years, the games’ drawings have been handled in different ways. The Iowa Lottery currently shares drawing results in the games. Since mid-2017, the Iowa Lottery has had an agreement with the Hoosier Lottery to share drawings results in Pick 3 and Pick 4.

We’ve heard over time from Iowa players who say they’d prefer Iowa-only drawings in the games, and we’re now making that change.

Starting with tomorrow’s midday drawings in Pick 3 and Pick 4, we’ll have Iowa-specific drawings. We think the change will help differentiate our games and their features from those in other states. (Dozens of lotteries around the country offer Pick 3 and Pick 4 games, with the features and options available varying from state to state.)

The drawing times in Pick 3 and Pick 4 will remain the same, with the midday drawings in each game held at 12:20 p.m. and the evening drawings held at 10 p.m. The sales cut-off times in the games also will remain unchanged. Tickets can be purchased until noon on the day of the drawing for the midday drawings and until 9:40 p.m. on the day of the drawing for evening drawings.

If you aren’t familiar with Pick 3 and Pick 4, they’re numbers games with a long U.S. history, starting along the East Coast. Pick 3 players choose combinations of three numbers from 0 to 9 while Pick 4 players choose combinations of four numbers from 0 to 9. The prize you could win depends on the type of play you make.

For example, you can choose the option of winning a prize only if your numbers match the winning numbers in the exact order they’re selected in the drawing. That’s called a straight play. Or, you can choose the option of winning a prize if your numbers match the winning numbers in any order. That’s called a box play. There are other options in the games as well.

Prizes in Pick 3 and Pick 4 are smaller than those in big-jackpot games like Powerball® and Mega Millions®, but the odds of winning also are significantly better.

Iowa’s Pick 3 game has a top prize of $3,000, with odds of just 1 in 1,000 of winning it. Iowa’s Pick 4 game offers a top prize of $30,000, with odds of 1:10,000 of winning it. Plays in both games range in cost from 50 cents up to $5.

Player Comments In the Middle Of The Night: Your Mobile App Isn’t Working

We’ve heard this week from some players who were having trouble in the middle of the night using the lottery’s mobile app to check their tickets or enter them into promotions. They told us that our app needed to be fixed.

But it’s actually working as it should. There’s just a period of time each night when the app is offline. If you try to use an app function that’s unavailable at that time, you’ll get a message asking you to try again later.

Many of the mobile app’s functions are tied into the lottery’s central gaming system, which links all Iowa Lottery terminals and self-service kiosks in real time along with some functions on the app.

As part of the lottery’s security procedures, the central gaming system is taken offline each night at midnight so that sales from the previous day can be balanced, all plays can be accounted for, and system updates can be made.

When the lottery’s statewide gaming system is offline, ticket checking doesn’t work on the mobile app because that function needs to access the gaming system. And lotto tickets (in Powerball®, Mega Millions®, etc.) can’t be entered into promotions at that time for the same reason.

Tickets in scratch games and InstaPlay games can be entered into promotions when the gaming system is offline because the process for those products is slightly different.

Some nights, the central gaming system is offline for less than half an hour. Other nights when bigger updates need to be made, the system may be offline for a few hours.

We choose to take the gaming system offline just after midnight knowing that’s when foot traffic is lighter in retail locations and there are fewer online visits to our website and mobile app.

So if you’re trying to use the lottery’s mobile app between about midnight and 3 a.m. and you get a message asking you to try again later, please do that. The app’s functions will be live again once the central gaming system is brought back up.

Time Is Running Out For Unclaimed $30K Prize In Pick 4 Game

Friday Afternoon Update: I initially posted this blog entry earlier today with details about the unclaimed Pick 4 prize you see here as well as a Powerball® prize in Stuart. In a case of perfect timing, a player came in just a few minutes later and claimed the $50,000 Powerball prize that had been won 11 months ago. It’s exciting to see it get claimed! This blog entry is now updated to remove references to the Stuart prize.    

Time is ticking away for a sizeable Iowa Lottery prize that is still unclaimed. And an even bigger prize is also on the unclaimed list, but there’s plenty of time to go before its expiration date.

There are just a couple weeks left for a $30,000 Pick 4 prize won in Des Moines. It will expire on Oct. 5 if it isn’t claimed by the close of business that day.

The $30,000-winning Pick 4 ticket was purchased at Casey’s, 2849 E. Euclid Ave. in Des Moines, for that game’s evening drawing on July 7. The $30,000 prize, which is the largest amount a player can win in Pick 4, was won with a straight play, meaning it would win a prize only if it matched the winning numbers in the exact order they were selected in the drawing. The winning Pick 4 numbers that night were 3-7-6-2.

The winner of the Pick 4 prize has until 4 p.m. on Oct. 5 to claim it at an Iowa Lottery office.

Interestingly, a $1 million Mega Millions® prize also is unclaimed in Iowa, but there are months to go before its expiration date. The $1 million-winning ticket was purchased at Gateway Expresse, 2400 University Blvd. in Ames, for the Mega Millions drawing on Sept. 6.

The Ames ticket was the only one in the country that night to win a $1 million prize by matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball. That night’s winning numbers were: 6-17-46-59-68 and Mega Ball 2.

The winner of the $1 million Mega Millions prize has until the close of business on Sept. 6, 2023, to claim it at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive.

If you’re a prize winner and you have questions before coming forward to claim your winnings, please give us a shout at 515-725-7900 or email us at [email protected]

In the last fiscal year, more than $1.5 million in lotto and InstaPlay prizes expired in Iowa without being claimed.

Time appears to be a factor. The Iowa Lottery reviewed plays from a sampling of recent lotto drawings and found that the vast majority of prizes are claimed within six months of the drawing date. Less than 3 percent of prizes from those drawings were claimed after that point. The Iowa Lottery will continue to review how it can best encourage and remind players to claim their prizes.

The money from lottery prizes that expire in Iowa without being claimed goes into the lottery's prize pools for future games and promotions, so it will be used to pay prizes, just not those prizes that have expired.

That Giant Jackpot Has Been Claimed! But Have Any Huge Prizes Ever Expired?

News is breaking today that the $1.337 billion Mega Millions® jackpot from back in July has been claimed, split by two people in Illinois. Here are articles about it from Forbes and WGN-TV.

Now folks are asking about big lottery prizes that have expired without being claimed. And specifically, has a jackpot prize ever expired? That has happened. In fact, several jackpots have expired without being claimed, and they each were worth millions.

The list includes:
• a $77 million Powerball® jackpot won in 2011 in Georgia.
• a $68 million Mega Millions jackpot won in 2002 in New York.
• a $63 million SuperLotto Plus® jackpot won in 2015 in California.
• a $51.7 million Powerball jackpot won in 2002 in Indiana.
• a $46 million Mega Millions jackpot won in 2006 in New York.

So why do lottery prizes go unclaimed? There likely are as many reasons as there are people who play. Maybe the person never checked their ticket and it eventually got lost or thrown away. Maybe the ticket got ruined – sent through the washing machine or the dryer. Maybe something sticky got spilled on it and it ended up getting stuck to a surface somewhere.

We send our huge congratulations to the big winners in Illinois! And to everyone else, this is a gentle reminder to check and double-check your tickets!

It’s A BIG Day For Promotion Winners – And The Powerball Promotion Is Still Going!

Today is definitely a day for winner news! We’ve just announced the 72 winners in our summer promotions, including the two grand-prize winners of $50,000 in the Explore Iowa promotion. But that doesn’t leave you shut out of the fun. Our Powerball® First Millionaire of the Year promotion is live now with more prizes on the line, and so is the Moola Prize Zone promotion!

On the Promotions Results page of our website, you’ll find the complete drawing results for the Explore Iowa, Fly with Cy and Money Magnet Prize Zone promotions. Those include the winners of the $50,000 cash prize and the $50,000 Polaris® gift certificate package in the Explore Iowa promotion, the 50 winners of VIP trip packages in the Fly with Cy promotion, and the 20 winners of prizes of $300 cash in the Money Magnet Prize Zone promotion.

It’s Friday, so it seems like a good time to send a bunch of people into the weekend on a happy note! Congratulations to all the winners announced today!

20 Iowa Players Will Win $2,500 & 1 Will Win A Trip To New York For a Chance At $1 Million!

An extra shot at big winnings is on the line when you play Powerball® now, including the chance to go to New York City to ring in 2023 and be in the running to become the first Powerball Millionaire of the Year!

You of course have a shot at the game’s big jackpots when you play, and for the next month, you can enter your Powerball tickets in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year® promotion for a chance at 20 Iowa prizes of $2,500 cash plus the possibility of becoming the first Powerball millionaire of 2023!

The Powerball First Millionaire of the Year promotion started at 10 a.m. today, and the entry period runs through the morning of Oct. 11. Any Iowa Powerball ticket purchased in Iowa on or after Sept. 4 is eligible for entry (winning and nonwinning tickets can both be entered).

Please note this important detail: Simply buying a Powerball ticket during the promotion period won’t automatically get you entered. You’ll need to buy a Powerball ticket in Iowa and then enter that ticket into the promotion through your VIP Club account. (Click here to join if you’re not already a member.)

You may remember that Iowa had two of the five finalists in last year’s Powerball First Millionaire of the Year promotion and they received at-home entertainment packages. But with travel opened back up, this year’s promotion will be handled differently.

In the Iowa drawing on Oct. 13, our state’s 20 winners of $2,500 prizes will be selected, and the first name drawn will be Iowa’s finalist who gets to go to New York for New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. That person will be in the running for the $1 million prize. The New York trip package alone is valued at more than $28,000.

Each eligible Powerball ticket entered will count as one entry into the promotion, regardless of the number of plays on it or how many drawings those plays may span.

Just after the ball drops to bring in the New Year, Powerball’s First Millionaire of the Year will be announced live on ABC’s national broadcast of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” And yes, it could be you!

Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve are registered trademarks of DCP Rights, LLC. All rights reserved.

 

Player Question: When New Games Come Out, Do Your Dispensers Just Expand?

Here’s an interesting question that came our way on social media this week: When new scratch games are released like the five games that hit store shelves this week, do the lottery’s ticket dispensers expand to allow more room? The quick answer is no, but here is the backstory.

New scratch games and pull-tab games are introduced throughout the year to give players new chances to win prizes and keep the mix of games fun and entertaining. Variety is the spice of life for today’s consumers, and people vote with their pocketbooks when it comes to the items they choose to buy. Games that have been on the market for awhile generally have lower sales than our newest games because people like to try new things.

The Iowa Lottery certainly does its best to keep a game on the market if it still has top prizes available, but older games are generally removed from sale as newer games are introduced. There’s only so much room in the lottery’s ticket dispensers and self-service kiosks, so the replacement of older games happens as a standard part of our procedures throughout the year.

So the answer to the player’s question is that the lottery’s dispensers and self-service kiosks don’t expand when new games come out.

The five new scratch games that debuted on Wednesday are shown in the image above. They range from a $1 game up to a $10 game, so there are several new play styles and prize levels available for you to play. We hope you have fun with them!

For 3rd Time This Summer, IA Ticket Wins Mega Millions Prize Of At Least $1 Million

For the third time this summer, an Iowa player has won a Mega Millions® prize of at least $1 million. The latest prize was won in Ames.

Someone who bought a ticket at an Ames convenience store won a $1 million prize in last night’s Mega Millions drawing. The $1 million-winning ticket was purchased at Gateway Expresse, 2400 University Blvd. in Ames. The ticket came within one number of having at least a share of last night’s $191 million jackpot.

Last night’s winning numbers were: 6-17-46-59-68 and Mega Ball 2. The Megaplier® number was 4. The Ames ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Mega Ball to win a $1 million prize.

No one matched all six numbers to win last night’s jackpot, so the big prize climbs to an estimated $210 million annuity, $114 million lump-sum option for Friday’s drawing.

The Ames ticket was the only $1 million winner across the country in last night’s drawing.

Gateway Expresse will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.

In late July, a Davenport man won a $2 million Mega Millions prize with a ticket he bought at a Quad Cities convenience store. And in August, a West Union man won a $1 million Mega Millions prize with a ticket he bought at a convenience store in the northeast Iowa community of Ossian.

Prizes of $1 million must be claimed at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. The lottery’s offices are open Monday through Friday, and prize claims are currently available by appointment. The winner or winners of the Ames prize can call the lottery at 515-725-7900 to make an appointment to claim it.